ADT enhances Pulse with new Home View application

BOCA RATON, Fla.—A new free feature for ADT Pulse enables customers to create a virtual floor plan of their home to control smart-home devices through a mobile device or on the Web.

“As far as I know, we’re the first security company offering home automation and control to offer the Home View feature: an electronic floor plan for a view of your home and controlling your home,” Steve Shapiro, ADT group director of product management, told Security Systems News.

ADT, based here, introduced Pulse, its interactive smart-home product, in October 2010 and earlier this year reported it has more than 100,000 Pulse customers. Also, Shapiro said, “nearly one-third of our new customers opt for ADT Pulse in addition to a security system.”

Instead of having a customers deal with a list of smart-home devices in their homes, Shapiro said, “we put our heads together with customer feedback and said, ‘Why not just have a visual view of your whole home as you connect to ADT Pulse?’ You log in and if you want [you] have one view of your house and you can see everything.”

In its May 31 news release announcing the Home View application, ADT described how it works: “Once a customer sets up Home View via their personal ADT Pulse sign-in page, they can view color-coded icons of their security devices, lights, thermostats and cameras. By clicking on the icons, customers can easily control their home’s lighting, climate and many small appliances. And if they have cameras, customers can quickly view real-time video by simply clicking the video icons.”

ADT allowed for the fact that different homes have different floor plans. “The other thing we were careful to do, knowing no two homes are ever alike, is allow customers to draw the floor plan themselves,” Shapiro said. “…What we find is that the majority of our users are able to draw a floor plan of the house in 15 minutes—it’s that easy to do. And if, for example, you have a camera, you just drag the camera [icon] to the place in your house [floor plan] where the camera is. If you have a thermostat, you drag that [icon] to the wall that the thermostat is on, so not only is it easy to use, it’s easy to create.”

Once created, Shapiro said, “you look at the floor plan of your house [using your computer or Web-enabled mobile device], and, for example, if your door is open, the little indicator is different than if the door is closed. If the light is on, it sort of lights up, and the thermostat shows the temperature. So you no longer have to scroll through lists—it’s a snapshot.”

He said the new feature enhances ADT Pulse and makes it even easier to sell. “This is one of those things where you don’t have to spend time training a customer. It’s very self-evident as soon as they see a demonstration. They go, ‘Oh, I could see my own house being this way. How simple it is to use.’”

Tyco International Ltd., ADT’s parent company, announced in September that it would split into three separate, publicly traded entities: Flow Control; The ADT Corp.; and Tyco International (comprised of Tyco Integrated Security and Fire).

The ADT Corp. has a new management lineup and said that upon separation, it “will be a leading provider of electronic security, interactive automation and related monitoring services for residences and small businesses in North America.”